Shaman punk

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Shaman punk is a subgenre of punk rock and hardcore punk first used by critics to describe the musical style of Hungarian band Galloping Coroners in the 1980s.

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed in the mid-1970s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in 1960s garage rock and other forms of what is now known as "proto-punk" music, punk rock bands rejected perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Punk bands typically produced short or fast-paced songs, with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record labels and other informal channels.

Hardcore punk Subgenre of punk rock

Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk scenes in San Francisco and Southern California which arose as a reaction against the still predominant hippie cultural climate of the time. It was also inspired by New York punk rock and early proto-punk. New York punk had a harder-edged sound than its San Francisco counterpart, featuring anti-art expressions of masculine anger, energy, and subversive humor. Hardcore punk generally disavows commercialism, the established music industry and "anything similar to the characteristics of mainstream rock" and often addresses social and political topics with "confrontational, politically-charged lyrics."

Hungary has made many contributions to the fields of folk, popular and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music. It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra.

Contents

History

When Galloping Coroners (Hungarian: Vágtázó Halottkémek or simply VHK) was formed in 1975, there was not a defined category for the musical genre that they were exploring. Frontman Atilla Grandpierre was a student of shaman's music infusing Galloping Coroners with shamanistic philosophies and concepts from the start. Because the group was formed 1–2 years before the western punk movement the band didn't initially use the term "shaman punk" to define their music. [1]

Shamanic music

Shamanic music is music played either by actual shamans as part of their rituals, or by people who, whilst not themselves shamans, wish to evoke the cultural background of shamanism in some way. So Shamanic music includes both music used as part of shamans' rituals and music that refers to, or draws on, this.

Shamanism

Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.

In late 1970s as punk rock emerged, VHK's relationship to punk and hardcore become obvious for both the band, fans and journalists. "Shamanistic punk", "psychedelic hardcore" and also "ethno punk" were expressions that began to be used retroactively by western musical press from the 1980s and was also applied by the Hungarian press after the political changes around 1989.

The Communist rule in the Hungarian People's Republic came to an end in 1989. The events were part of the Revolutions of 1989, known in Hungarian as the Rendszerváltás.

Some critics who regard tribal shaman music as an ancient form of folk music suggested the use of "ethno punk", while others claim that VHK's musical style should be regarded as a folk punk subgenre. But, while typical "folk punk" groups include national folk elements in their music, VHK's repetitive, ecstatic sound with distorted guitars and inarticulate howls is much closer to hardcore or even industrial rock.

Folk punk is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain, and by Violent Femmes in the United States. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, its subgenres Celtic punk and Gypsy punk have experienced some commercial success.

Industrial rock music genre

Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and rock music.

Today the "shaman punk" expression is widely used in Hungarian and western musical media when talking about Galloping Coroners. [2] To date there is no other group that is regarded as "shaman punk".

Philosophy

The concept of "shaman punk" music is rooted in VHK's musical philosophy which includes exploring contemporary musical expressions of what prehistoric shamans did by their ecstatic, tribal ceremonies to find and join the powers of nature and creation. The band states that "it is a magical folk-music, a cosmic vision about the role of earthly life on the destination of the Universe." [3] VHK has described their music as "an instinctive primeval music liberating the elementary powers of nature - creating ourselves and evolving to its highest completion with a free spontaneity and overwhelming energy." [3] Band leader Attila Grandpierre explains this in his manifesto Punk As a Rebirth of Shamanist Folk Music in 1984 :

Punk is not simply a new, superficial "wave in fashion" but a radical reinterpretation of art, punk has gone back to such forgotten, underground layers of ancient culture... and plays the same role as shamanic ceremonies played in the “prehistoric” times giving a magic force for its creators, leading to ecstasy, and, through its force, elevated the participant’s relation to himself and the world into a symbolic order. [4]

Musical features

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Galloping Coroners Hungarian musical group

Galloping Coroners was a Hungarian rock band active from 1975-2001, and briefly reformed in 2009 and 2013. The band established a unique "shaman punk" or "psychedelic hardcore” sound, and is regarded as one of the most important alternative bands of the 1980s from the Eastern European block. Permanent restrictions by Hungarian authorities made worldwide tours difficult for the band, but its ecstatic concerts garnered surprising success across Western Europe. Though relatively obscure and commercially limited outside of Eastern Europe, Maximumrocknroll described the band as "equal in spirit and grit to faves like Sonic Youth or Big Black but with an identity all its own”. VHK has been praised as a highly important band by Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra and Einstürzende Neubauten.

Galloping Wonder Stag musical group from Hungary

Galloping Wonder Stag is Hungarian music group, associated with world music, psychedelic folk, folk rock and shamanic music labels, continuing Galloping Coroners psychedelic music replacing electronic guitars and drums with acoustic folk instruments.

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Attila Grandpierre astronomer, musician, physicist, writer

Attila Grandpierre is a Hungarian musician, astrophysicist, physicist, self-taught historian, writer and poet. He is best known as leader/vocalist of the Galloping Coroners rock band.

References

  1. Szemere, Anna (1991). Up from the Underground: The Culture of Rock Music in Postsocialist Hungary. USA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park.
  2. "Contemplating the Heavens with VHK's Atilla Grandpierre | VICE | United States" . Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  3. 1 2 "Vágtázó Halottkémek". vhk.mediastorm.hu. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  4. Grandpierre, Atilla (1984). Punk As a Rebirth of Shamanic Folk Music.

Bibliography

  1. Contemplating the Heavens with VHK's Atilla Grandpierre, by Jordan N. Mamone, at www.vice.com, 2013
  2. New York Times: Critic's Notebook; Rock Music of Eastern Europe: So Western, So Familiar, So Old By JON PARELES Published: February 28, 1990,
  3. Attila Grandpierre: Punk As a Rebirth of Shamanist Folk Music
  4. Documentary film: VHK - The Ones Who Taught Death a Lesson, 2012
  5. imdb.com Documentary film: VHK - The Ones Who Taught Death a Lesson, 2012
  6. Interview with Attila Grandpierre, by Archie Patterson, Eurock.com
  7. Anna Szemere: Up from the Underground: The Culture of Rock Music in Postsocialist Hungary, The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, 2001